On August 30, 2017, over 130 ASU students and faculty from multiple disciplines filed into the Apache Junction Multi-Generational Center.

The draw? A kick-off event marking a partnership between ASU’s Project Cities program and the City of Apache Junction – one that plugs students into projects that make Apache Junction a better place to live.

Not only did students get to hear more about these projects from Project Cities and Apache Junction staff, the kick-off event included networking with the Apache Junction mayor, city council, board commissioners and staff – not to mention a bus tour of the city. Breakout sessions allowed students to ask city project leaders questions, learn about community history and brainstorm possible solutions to local challenges.

Continue Reading

What does social equity look like in a resilient city? In this episode, graduate students and postdocs reflect on the relationship between 'green' projects and processes of displacement and gentrification. In particular, we talk about our own roles in addressing environmental justice, as we embark in research on urban resilience to extreme weather events.

If you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us or follow us on Twitter.

Listen on iTunes , Stitcher or Buzzsprout.

In a very interesting and thoughtful article, ASU Professor Paul Hirt and collaborators tackle the issue of a sustainable water supply for central Arizona.

After a holistic analysis of governmental, research and historic perspectives, they conclude that the long-term solution is on the demand side of the problem. A significant reduction in per capita water consumption and total water demand is needed to put Arizona‘s urban areas on the path to sustainability. Such reductions require psychological, behavioral and cultural changes that take a long time.

Hirt explains, “The task facing Arizona over the next century is to work just as concertedly and collaboratively and successfully on managing water demand—managing ourselves—to close the water demand-supply gap steadily and intentionally in a way that averts crises, protects environmental resources and advances justice, equity and sustainability.”

Now is the time to map paths to the breakthrough research programs and forward-looking university-business partnerships that will serve as the hubs for this new carbon economy. This is an economy in which low-carbon industry and primary energy production are joined by industrial centers, agricultural regions and food-producing ecosystems that turn excess CO2 into consumer goods, fuels, building materials and fertile soil. With deliberate but ambitious planning, the United States and collaborators in other countries can develop the knowledge, technologies and human capital to catalyze the new carbon economy by 2040.

In June 2017, a one-day workshop was held at Arizona State University to begin mapping out the work of a consortium focused on creating a framework for the research programs necessary to support the new carbon economy. The workshop brought together experts from Arizona State University, the Center for Carbon Removal, Iowa State University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Purdue University.

Continue Reading

Getting grants—state, federal, from foundations, or otherwise—has always been a competitive and overwhelming process. Community participants of the Sustainable Cities Network have longed for a workshop on grant writing not only to fund their own projects, but to bring more investment and positive change to Arizona communities. SCN answered this call with a grant workshop on September 13, 2017, facilitated by one of Arizona State University’s own Research Advancement Managers, Ann Marie Hess, who has extensive experience in developing, managing, and implementing large grant-funded projects.

This workshop touched on understanding critical parts of RFPs and writing effective proposals, and emphasized the value of collaboration on projects and in securing grants. Participants were able to share their progress on current grant applications, as well as discuss opportunities for joint projects, collaborations, and applications.

In all, over 40 participants benefited from this half-day workshop. Future workshops may be held and customized further depending on attendee feedback. For now, these participants—ranging from communities of all sizes across Arizona—have the starter tools to develop some highly competitive grant proposals and applications. Watch out, grant providers! Arizona communities are coming for you.

Links to the presentation and materials provided at this workshop can be found here.

New ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Associate Research Professor Samantha Cheng recently published a paper titled “Delivering on seafood traceability under the new U.S. import monitoring program.”

The U.S. is the world’s largest fish importer. However, recent reports indicate that 25-30% of wild-caught seafood imported into the U.S. is illegally caught, raising concern for the country’s role in driving unregulated fishing.

Continue Reading

The ASU Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology will be hosting an ASU Female Center Directors’ Convening on Tuesday, October 3 from 5:00-6:30 p.m. in Phoenix.

The intention of the event is to strengthen community partnerships, to facilitate dialogues across disciplines and borders and to leverage practical, gender-equity work beyond academe.

Continue Reading

ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber recently published a paper titled “Innovative financing for the High Seas,” along with co-author Torsten Thiele, of London School of Economics.

The publication is part of a special issue emerging from a session on innovative financing mechanisms to achieve the United Nation’s Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals, during the 2016 International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress session in Honolulu, Hawai’i.

Continue Reading

On September 15, 2017, Edwin Castellanos, PhD, Professor and Director of the Center for Environmental Studies and Biodiversity at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, visited ASU to deliver a talk titled “No Need for Persuasion: Evidence of Mesoamerica’s Changing Climate.”

Castellanos has researched adaptation and mitigation to climate change in Guatemala for the past 20 years. He was a lead author in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report on climate change for the chapter on Central and South America.

Continue Reading

Graduate ASU UREx SRN students seek a holistic understanding of the ecosystem services – such as flood control, water treatment and cultural enrichment – that Valdivia, Chile's urban wetlands provide to residents.

Current research efforts include determining the flood mitigation potential of wetlands by measuring soil and surface water retention through Valdivia's wet and dry seasons, and evaluating how wetlands receive and process nutrients through collecting water samples and conducting nutrient pulse experiments. Future work will involve the final scenarios workshop, as well as distributing surveys to and soliciting "photovoice"-based participatory research from neighborhoods to discern how city residents experience and value their neighborhood wetlands.

Researchers are working with city practitioners, community organizations and unaffiliated citizens in Valdivia to ensure that their results will provide useful support for these groups in planning for their city's future. They hope to export the strategies developed in this work to other UREx SRN cities with similar environments.

Continue Reading

The National Science Foundation has awarded scientists from five academic institutions, including professor Marco Janssen of ASU's School of Sustainability, a $1.5 million grant to investigate how ecological and social elements shape recreational fisheries in northern Wisconsin.

Recreational fishing is a major industry in the U.S., with 30 million fishers generating over $15 billion a year. As many fisheries around the country collapse due to environmental and social issues, the goal of this study is to understand how to properly sustain good fishing conditions.

Continue Reading

The Future Cities Podcast is dedicated to exploring the ways that cities are making themselves more resilient to extreme weather events.

In this episode, our hosts – Stephen Elser, Jason Sauer, and Vivian Verduzco – introduce themselves and the work that they do as a part of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network. We also hear from other members of the network about topics that we'll discuss more in later episodes.

If you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, e-mail us or follow us on Twitter.

Listen on iTunes , Stitcher or Buzzsprout

At the second in a series of resilience and sustainability workshops with the City of Tempe, municipal executives and leaders discussed possible visions of Tempe in 2040 – from recreation to shade structures.

The event, hosted by the School of Sustainability's Executive and Professional Education program, centered on a new and innovative game called AudaCITY. Created by Senior Sustainability Scientist Lauren Withycombe Keeler of the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, the game enables participants to set sustainability goals and develop strategies to achieve them.

ASU will host a third resilience workshop for the City of Tempe later in fall 2017.

In the United Nations’ International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, what progress has been made toward community appropriate, environmentally sensitive and economically viable travel? Sustainability scientists Kathleen Andereck and Christine Vogt provide an overview and update in this Thought Leader essay.

In August 2015, the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber and graduate student affiliate Beth Tellman from the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning organized a panel titled “Expanding diversity in the next generation of ecology.” This event attracted dozens of minority students who have led a paper just out in Science titled “Without inclusion, diversity initiatives might not be enough.”

Fewer young people are pursuing conservation science degrees and working in their professions after graduation – even as platforms to increase diversity persist.  What is behind this disconnect?

Continue Reading

For ASU sustainability senior Hailey Baker, three countries plus three universities plus three weeks adds up to one unforgettable experience.

Baker and 31 other students – representing ASU, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and National Taipei University – traveled to three cities in Southern China for their summer studies, part of a program supported by the Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives, the ASU Wrigley Institute and the ASU Study Abroad Office.

During the three-week course on sustainable urban development, Baker and her peers experienced field trips and lectures in three cities: Guangzhou, China; Taipei, Taiwan; and Hong Kong. Then, working in teams with students from each participating university, each group completed a final solutions-focused project, including the development of sustainability plans for a new district in Hong Kong.

The course was co-taught by Rob Melnick – presidential professor of practice in ASU’s School of Sustainability – and sustainability doctoral candidate Joe Knott, along with faculty from the two partner universities.

A Thought Leader Series Piece

by Kathleen Andereck & Christine Vogt

Note: To celebrate the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute for Sustainability and the Center for Sustainable Tourism in the School of Community Resources and Development at ASU will host Megan Epler Wood – Director of the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Wood's lecture will take place at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2, at the Tempe Center for the Arts. It will be followed by a dessert reception and book signing.

The origins of sustainable tourism

The concept of sustainability, as we think of it today, emerged from several global initiatives on the heels of the environmental movement. Four initiatives in particular – the Brundtland report Our Common Future released in 1987; the Rio Summit with its Agenda 21 in 1992; and the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, or Rio+10, and then Rio+20 in 2012 – spurred the conceptual development of sustainable tourism.

In the Brundtland report, its authors took a serious look at the impacts of industrial and human activities on the planet. Tourism was flagged in recognition of its contribution to these impacts.

Continue Reading

Titled "A funny thing happened on the way to the job market," this essay by School of Sustainability Dean Christopher Boone illustrates the increased appeal of a sustainability degree to employers across industries. The essay appeared in several newspapers in the Valley and across the country.

Thaddeus Miller, a UREx SRN Executive Team member and social scientist, is featured in a ProPublica article about climate, resilience, and the role of the government. The article includes underappreciated ideas from engineers, economists, and policy analysts.

There are many ideas on how to become more resilient, but everyone has a different definition of what that means; some follow the modern definition of the word – having the ability to bounce back – while others would prefer to broaden the definition to include greater adaptability and preparedness.

Miller appears to be one of the latter as he describes the importance of a cultural shift, collaboration among different cities, and safe-to-fail designs to remain safe and thriving in our ever-changing climate.

Charles Redman, co-director of the UREx SRN, was interviewed by Mark Brodie of KJZZ 91.5. They discussed why we need to take Harvey and Irma as opportunities to rebuild our cities differently after such disasters.

It is common for people to revert to old ways when rebuilding their lives, but that could result in a missed opportunity.  Weather events like the ones we have seen in 2017 are likely to reoccur, and we should start planning both short-term and long-term. One idea is to invest in green infrastructure that can mimic or enhance nature and be safe-to-fail. That way when another disaster strikes, instead of resulting in catastrophe, it will only end up as an inconvenience.